Mobile Learning

It was interesting to get a corporate view of m-learning, but I did find myself questioning many of Marc’s points (some of which are not included here as a result)… Nevertheless, an engaging and fun presentation!

—–
‘mlearning Ru Rdy 4 IT’
Marc Niemes
President, e-Learning Industry Association of Victoria
http://elearning.org.au

Is this anything new?
Should you care?

Devices, Content and Context – get those 3 right, and your learning solutions will work.

Interactive activity: keypads: Ezicomms Clikapad: Top 3 things you’d like to address – from the crowd

(Info on elearning.org.au and himself)

Demonstration of ‘wisdom of the crowd’ – comparing weight of cow to weight of car.

Conference Demographics
55% TAFE/VET
15% other teachers
13% directors ceos of ‘learning companies’
7% other content creators
5% ‘consultants’

Marc’s Analysis
- Common interest in mlearning
- Education heritage, technology is the enabler
- Formal Education is important
- Classroom environment (looking at e/mlearning)
- Do-ers, leaders and thinkers, not followers
- Creators of subject matter, analysis of others

3000 mobile devices in the world at present… a lot of devices to develop for. But the m- or the e- is a distraction.

Key considerations:
- device
- content
- context
– motivation

Keys, wallet, phone. More people (152) brought their wallet than their keys. Mobile phones are a personal technology.

SMS and voice are the only two ubiquitous feature on mobile phones.
- WAP
- Online or offline
- Smart phones
– Walled Gardens: in cheaper phones, normally browsers go to providers’ web page first.
– Browsers: if you can’t keep them in the walled garden, charge them through the nose?

What is the ideal m-learning device?

E-learning video clip demo. Computer-based examples of learning games and content, some from Toolboxes. Corporate learning tends to be formulaic, strategic, not ‘play”.

Testing motivation – if the motivation is strong, the medium is irrelevant? Books vs ebooks? Which do you prefer? Mobiles as a way to access infomation? Don’t need to memorise, when you can look it up.

Corporate learning: 80% of learning in workplace is ‘informal’? Challenges with corporate learning… ?

[Ed: Corporate training seems a different creature to VET. Lots of stuff on tracking, strategy, consistency, reporting... rather than just great learning]

‘Static images may prove better than animated images’ – less distration?

Marc’s Top 3
- Devices
- Content
- Context